I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something.
Helen Keller

Giving a Voice to the Silence offers positive angles to the issue that faces those with mental illness. Living with Schizo-Affective Disorder and being able to share my experiences with others, is the best way I know how to pay it forward. Life can be difficult, my goal is to bring a bit of hope to a place where many feel there is none.

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mental Illness and research

With a donation of $20 million given to MIT for research, the door has been opened for further study in the make-up of the brain.

While progress has been made in the area’s of cancer and other disease’s, the brain is so complex that to understand it takes time and because of this knowing how to treat and understand psychiatric diseases is far behind – leaving doctors scrambling to find the right medications and treatments for those who are looking for relief from themselves.

With Mental illness affecting more 10 million people, there is a great need for learning how mental illness develops, if genes are involved and most of all, for those already living with mental illness, how it affects mood, cognition and how it reacts when it come to everyday stress or other triggers.

Understanding the whys and how’s is vital to save the lives of those who suffer and to eliminate the need to use the statistic for the number of suicides due to mental illness each year – a number that at present stands at 30,000 a year.